History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 5

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440

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During this year, Congress granted a township of land for the support of a college, and began to offer inducements for settlers in these wilds, and the country now comprising the state of Michigan began to fill rapidly with set- tlers along its southern borders. This same year a law was passed organizing the south-west territory, dividing it into two portions, the territory of New Orleans, which city was made the seat of government, and the district of Louisiana, which was annexed to the domain by General Harrison.

On the 11th of January, 1805, the territory of Michigan was formed, and Wm. Hull was appointed governor, with headquarters at Detroit, the change to take effect June 30th. On the 11th of that month a fire occurred at Detroit, which destroyed almost every building in the place. When the officers of the new territory reached the post, they found it in ruins, and the inhabitants scattered throughout the country. Rebuilding, however, was commenced at once. While this was being done, Indiana had passed to the second grade of government. In 1809 Indiana territory was divided, and the territory of Illinois was formed, the seat of government being fixed at Kaskaskia, and through her General Assembly had obtained large tracts of land from the Indian tribes. To all this the celebrated Indian Tecumthe or Tecumseh, vigorously protested,* and it was the main cause of his attempts to unite the various Indian tribes in a conflict with the settlers. He visited the principal tribes and succeeded in forming an alliance with most of the tribes, and then joined the cause of the British in the memorable war of 1812. Tecumseh was killed at the battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was in many respects a noble character, frank and honest in his intercourse with General Harrison and the settlers: in war brave and chivalrous. His treat- ment of prisoners was humane. In the summer of 1813, Perry's victory on Lake Erie occurred, and shortly after active preparations were made to cap- ture Fort Malden. On the 27th of September, the American army, under command of General Harrison, set sail for the shores of Canada, and in a few hours stood around the ruins of Malden, from which the British army under Proctor had retreated to Sandwich, intending to make its way to the heart of Canada by the valley of the Thames. On the 29th General Harrison was at Sandwich, and General McArthur took possession of Detroit and the terri- tory of Michigan. On the 2d of October following, the American army began their pursuit of Proctor, whom they overtook on the 5th, and the bat- tle of the Thames followed. The victory was decisive, and practically closed the war in the north-west. In 1806 occurred Burr's insurrection. He took pos- session of an island in the Ohio, and was charged with treasonable intentions against the Federal government. His capture was effected by General Wil- kinson acting under instrection of President Jefferson. Burr was brought to trial on a charge of treason, and after a prolonged trial, during which he defended himself with great ability, he was acquitted of the charge of treason.

* American State Papers.

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

His subsequent career was obscure, and he died in 1836. Had his scheme succeeded, it would be interesting to know what effect it would have had on the north-western territory. The battle of the Thames was fought October 6th, 1813 ; it effectually closed hostilities in the north-west, although peace was not restored until July 22d, 1814, when a treaty was made at Greenville, by General Harrison, between the United States and the Indian tribes. On the 24th of December, the treaty of Ghent was signed by the representatives of England and the United States. This treaty was followed the next year by treaties with various Indian tribes throughout the north-west, and quiet was again restored.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE NORTH-WEST.

In the former chapters we have traced briefly the discoveries, settlements, wars, and most important events which have occurred in the large area of country denominated the north-west, and we now turn to the contemplation of its growth and prosperity. Its people are among the most intelligent and enterprising in the Union. The population is steadily increasing, the arts and sciences are gaining a stronger foothold, the trade area of the region is becoming daily more extended, and we have been largely exempt from the financial calamities which have nearly wrecked communities on the sea-board, dependent wholly on foreign commerce or domestic manufacture. Agricul- ture is the leading feature in our industries. This vast domain has a sort of natural geographical border, save where it melts away to the south-ward in the cattle raising districts of the south-west. The leading interests will be the growth of the food of the world, in which branch it has already out- stripped all competitors, and our great rival will be the fertile fields of Kan- sas, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico.

To attempt to give statistics of grain productions for 1878 or '79, would require more space than our work would permit of. Manufacturing has now attained in the chief cities a foothold that bids fair to render the north- west independent of the outside world. Nearly our whole region has a dis- tribution of coal measure which will in time support the manufactures necessary to our comfort and prosperity. As to transportation, the chief factor in the production of all articles except food, no section is so magnifi- cently endowed, and our facilities are yearly increasing beyond those of any other region.

The principal trade and manufacturing centres of the great north-west are Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland and Toledo, with any number of minor cities and towns doing a large and growing busi- ness. The intelligence and enterprise of its people; the great wealth of its soil and minerals; its vast inland seas and navigable rivers; its magnifi- cent railroad system ; its patriotism and love of country will render it ever loyal in the future as in the past. The people of the Mississippi Valley are the keystone of the national union and national prosperity.

CHAPTER II.

BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ILLINOIS.

T is necessary to treat the history of this great State briefly. And first we direct attention to the discovery and exploration of the Mississippi. Hernando De Soto, cutting his way through the wilderness from Florida, had discovered the Mississippi in the year 1542. Wasted with disease and privation, he only reached the stream to die upon its banks, and the remains of the ambitous and iron-willed Spaniard found a fitting resting-place beneath the waters of the great river. The chief incitement to Spanish discoveries in America was a thirst for gold and treasure. The discovery and settlement of the Mississippi Valley on the part of the French must, on the other hand, be ascribed as religious zeal. Jesuit missionaries, from the French settlements on the St. Lawrence, early penetrated to the region of Lake Huron. It was from the tribes of Indians living in the West, that intelligence came of a 'noble river flowing south. Marquette, who had visited the Chippewas in 1668, and established the mission of St. Mary, now the oldest settlement within the present com- monwealth of Michigan, formed the purpose of its exploration.

In company with Joliet, a fur-trader of Quebec, who had been designated by M. Talon, Intendent of Canada, as chieftain of the exploring party, and five French voyageurs, Marquette, on the 10th of June, 1673, set out on the expedition. Crossing the water-shed dividing the Fox from the Wisconsin rivers, their two canoes were soon launched on the waters of the latter. Seven days after, on the 17th of June, they joyfully entered the broad cur-

rent of the Mississippi. Stopping six days on the western bank, near the mouth of the Des Moines River, to enjoy the hospitalities of the Illinois Indians, the voyage was resumed, and after passing the perpendicular rocks above Alton, on whose lofty limestone front are painted frightful representa- tions of monsters, they suddenly came upon the mouth of the Missouri, known by its Algonquin name of Pekitanoni, whose swift and turbid current threatened to engulf their frail canoes. The site of St. Louis was an un- broken forest, and further down, the fertile plain bordering the river reposed in peaceful solitude, as, early in July, the adventurers glided past it. They continued their voyage to a point some distance below the mouth of the Arkansas, and then retraced their course up the river, arriving at the Jesuit Mission at the head of Green Bay, late in September.

Robert, Cavalier de La Salle, whose illustrious name is more intimately connected with the exploration of the Mississippi than that of any other, was the next to descend the river, in the early part of the year 1682. At its mouth he erected a column, and decorating it with the arms of France, placed upon it the following inscription :

LOUIS LE GRAND, ROI DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE, REGNE; LE NEUVIEME AVRIL, 1682.

Thus France, by right of discovery, lay claim to the Mississippi Valley, the fairest portion of the globe, an empire in extent, stretching from the Gulf to the Lakes, and from the farthest sources of the Ohio to where the head waters of the Missouri are lost in the wild solitudes of the Rocky Mountains. La Salle bestowed upon the territory the name of Louisiana, in honor of the King of France, Louis XIV.

The assertion has been made that on La Salle's return up the river, in the summer of 1682, a portion of the party were left behind, who founded the villages of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, but the statement rests on no substantial foundation.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN ILLINOIS.

The gentle and pious Marquette, devoted to his purpose of carrying the gospel to the Indians, had established a mission among the Illinois, in 1675, at their principal town on the river which still bears their name. This was at the present town of Utica, in La Salle County. In the presence of the whole tribe, by whom, it is recorded, he was received as a celestial visitor, he displayed the sacred pictures of the Virgin Mary, raised an altar, and said mass. On Easter Sunday, after celebrating the mystery of the Eucharist, he took possession of the land in the name of the Saviour of the world, and founded the " Mission of the Immaculate Conception." The town was called Kaskaskia, a name afterwards transferred to another locality.

La Salle, while making preparations to descend the Mississippi, built a fort, on the Illinois River, below the Lake of Peoria, in February, 1680, and in commemoration of his misfortunes, bestowed upon it the name of Crevecoeur, "broken-hearted." Traces of its embankments are yet discernible. This was the first military occupation of Illinois. There is no evidence, however, that settlement was begun there at that early date.

On La Salle's return from this exploration of the Mississippi, in 1682, he fortified " Starved Rock," whose military advantages had previously attracted his attention. From its summit, which rises 125 feet above the waters of the river, the valley of the Illinois speeds out before the eye in a landscape of rarest beauty. From three sides it is inaccessible. This stronghold received the name of the Fort of St. Louis. Twenty thousand allied Indians gathered around it on the fertile plains. The fort seems to have been abandoned soon after the year 1700.

Marquette's mission (1675), Crevecoeur (1680), and the Fort of St. Louis (1682), embrace, so far, all the attempts made toward effecting anything like a permanent settlement in the Illinois country. Of the second few traces remain. A line of fortifications may be faintly traced, and that is all. The seed of civilization planted by the Jesuit, Marquette, among the Illinois In- dians, was destined to produce more enduring fruit. It was the germ of Kas- kaskia, during the succeeding years of the French occupation-the metropolis of the Mississippi Valley The southern Kaskaskia is merely the northern one transplanted. The Mission of the Immaculate Conception is the same.

FOUNDING OF KASKASKIA.

On the death of Marquette, he was succeeded by Allouez, and he by Father Gravier, who respectively had charge of the Mission on the Illinois River. Gravier is said to have been the first to reduce the principles of the Illinois language to rules. It was also he who succeeded in transferring Marquette's Mission from the banks of the Illinois south to the spot where

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

stands the modern town of Kaskaskia, and where it was destined to endure. The exact date is not known, but the removal was accomplished some time prior to the year 1690, though probably not earlier than 1685.

Father Gravier was subsequently recalled to Mackinaw, and his place was supplied by Bineteau and Pinet. Pinet proved an eloquent and suc- cessful minister, and his chapel was often insufficient to hold the crowds of savages who gathered to hear his words. Bineteau met with a fate similar to that which befell many another devoted priest in his heroic labors for the conversion of the savages. He accompanied the Kaskaskias on one of their annual hunts to the upper Mississippi, that his pastoral relations might not suffer intermission. His frame was poorly fitted to stand the exposure. Parched by day on the burning prairie, chilled by heavy dews at night, now panting with thirst and again aching with cold, he at length fell a victim to a violent fever, and "left his bones on the wilderness range of the buffa- loes." Pinet shortly after followed his comrade.

Father Gabriel Morrest had previously arrived at Kaskaskia. He was a Jesuit. He had carried the emblem of his faith to the frozen regions of Hud- son's Bay, and had been taken prisoner by the English, and upon his lib- eration returned to America, and joined the Kaskaskia Mission. After the deaths of Bineteau and Pinet, he had sole charge until joined by Father Mermet shortly after the opening of the eighteenth century.

The devotion and piety of Mermet fully equalled those of his companion. He had assisted in collecting a village of Indians and Canadians, and had thus founded the first French port on the Ohio, or, as the lower part of the river was then called, the Wabash. At the Kaskaskia Mission his gentle virtues and fervid eloquence seem not to have been without their influence. " At early dawn his pupils came to church dressed neatly and modestly, each in a large deer-skin, or in a robe stitched together from several skins. After receiving lessons they chanted canticles; mass was then said in pre- sence of all the Christians in the place, the French and the converts-the women on one side and the men on the other. From prayer and instruction the missionaries proceeded to visit the sick and administer medicine, and their skill as physicians did more than all the rest to win confidence. In the afternoon the catechism was taught in the presence of the young and the old, when every one, without distinction of rank or age, answered the ques- tions of the missionary. At evening all would assemble at the chapel for instruction, for prayer, and to chant the hymns of the church. On Sundays and festivals, even after vespers, a homily was pronounced ; at the close of the day parties would meet in houses to recite the chaplet in alternate choirs, and sing psalms until late at night. These psalms were often homilies with words set to familiar tunes. Saturday and Sunday were days appointed for confession and communion, and every convert confessed once in a fortnight. The success of the mission was such that marriages of French immigrants were sometimes solemnized with the daughters of the Illinois according to the rites of the Catholic Church. The occupation of the country was a cantonment of Europeans among the native proprietors of the forests and the prairies .* A court of law was unknown for nearly a century, and up to the time of Boisbriant there was no local government. The priests possessed the entire confidence of the community, and their authority happily settled, without the tardy delays and vexations of the courts, the minor difficulties which threatened the peace of the settlement. Of the families which formed part of the French population in the early history of Kaskaskia, there is some uncertainty. There is, however, authority for believing that the follow- ing were among the principal settlers : Bazyl La Chapelle, Michael Derouse (called St. Pierre), Jean Baptiste St. Gemme Beauvais, Baptiste Montreal, Boucher de Montbrun, Charles Danie, Francois Charlesville, Antoine Bien- venu, Louis. Bruyat, Alexis Doza, Joseph Paget, Prix Pagi, Michael An- toyen, Langlois De Lisle, La Derroutte and Noval.

AS PART OF LOUISIANA.

The settlements of Illinois had been a separate dependency of Canada. In 1711, together with the settlements on the Lower Mississippi, which had been founded by D'Iberville and Bienville, they became united in a single prov- ince under the name of Louisiana, with the capital at Mobile.

The exclusive control of the commerce of this region, whose boundless re- sources, it was believed, were to enrich France, was granted to Anthony Crozat, a merchant of great wealth. "We permit him," says the king in his letters patent, "to search, open, and dig all mines, veins, minerals, pre- cious stones and pearls, and to transport the proceeds thereof into any part of

* Bancroft.

France for fifteen years." La Motte Cadillac, who had now become royal Governor of Louisiana, was his partner. Hopes of obtaining great quan- tities of gold and silver animated the proprietors, as well as agitated France. Two pieces of silver ore, left at Kaskaskia by a traveler from Mexico, were exhibited to Cadillac as the produce of a mine in Illinois. Elated by this prospect of wealth, the Governor hurried up the river to find his anticipa- tions fade away in disappointment. Iron ore and the purest lead were dis- covered in large quantities in Missouri, but of gold, and silver, and precious stones not a trace was found. After Crozat had expended 425,000 livres, and realized only 300,000, he, in 1717, petitioned the king for the revocation of his charter. The white population had slowly increased; and at the time of his departure it was estimated that the families comprising the Illinois settlements, now including those on the Wabash, numbered three hundred and twenty souls.

The commerce of Louisiana was next transferred to the Mississippi Com- pany, instituted under the auspices of the notorious John Law. The wild excitement and visionary schemes which agitated France during Law's con- nection with the Company of the West, and while at the head of the Bank of France, forms the most curious chapter in the annals of commercial speculations. These delusive dreams of wealth were based mainly upon the reports of the fabulous riches of the Mississippi Valley. Attempts to colo- nize the country were conducted with careless prodigality. Three ships landed eight hundred emigrants in August, 1718, near Mobile, whence they were to make their way overland to the Mississippi. Bienville, on the banks of that river, had already selected the spot for the Capital of the new Empire, which, after the Regent of France, was named New Orleans. From among the emigrants, eighty convicts from the prisons of France were sent to clear away the coppices which thickly studded the site. Three years after, in 1721, the place was yet a wilderness, overgrown with canebrakes, among which two hundred persons had encamped.

Phillip Renault was created Director-General of the mines of the new country, and an expedition was organized to work them. Renault left France, in 1719, with two hundred mechanics and laborers. Touching at San Domingo, he bought five hundred negro slaves for working the mines. On reaching the Mississippi, he sailed to Illinois, the region in which gold and silver were supposed to abound. A few miles from Kaskaskia, in what is now the southwest corner of Monroe County, was the seat of his colony. The village which he founded received the name of St. Phillip's. From this point various expeditions were sent out in search of the precious metals. Drewry's Creek, in Jackson County, was explored; St. Mary's, in Ran- dolph ; Silver Creek, in Monroe ; and various parts of St. Clair County, and other districts of Illinois. On Silver Creek, tradition has it that considera- ble quantities of silver were discovered and sent to France, and from this the stream has its name. By the retrocession of the territory to the crown, Renault was left to prosecute the business of mining without means. His operations proved a disastrous failure

FORT CHARTRES.

Meanwhile war had sprung up between France and Spain, and to protect the Illinois settlements from incursions of Spanish cavalry across the Great Desert, it was thought advisable to establish a fort in the neighborhood of Kaskaskia. A Spanish expedition had, indeed, been fitted out at Santa Fe, but their guides, leading it by mistake to the Missouri Indians, instead of the Osages, enemies instead of friends, the whole party was massacred, with the ex- ception of a priest who escaped to relate the fate of his unfortunate comrades. Previous to this La Salle, on the occasion of his visit to Paris, had shown the necessity of building a chain of forts from Canada to the Gulf, in order to secure the territory to the crown of France. In 1720, Boisbriant was des- patched to Illinois. He began the building of Fort Chartres, long the strongest fortress on the Western Continent, and of wide celebrity in the subsequent history of Illinois.

Fort Chartres stood on the east bank of the Mississippi, seventeen miles north-west of Kaskaskia, and between three and four miles from the location of the present village of Prairie du Rocher. The Company of the West finally built their warehouses here. In 1721, on the division of Louisiana into seven districts, it became the headquarters of Boisbriant, the first local Governor of Illinois. Fort Chartres was the seat of the government of Illi- nois, not only while the French retained possession of the country, but after it passed under English control. When the fort was built, it stood about one mile distant from the river. In the year 1724 an inundation of the Mississippi washed away a portion of bank in front of the fort.

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HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

Captain Philip Pitman visited Illinois in 1766. He was an engineer in the British army, and was sent to Illinois to make a survey of the forts, and report the condition of the country, which had recently passed under British control. He published in London, in 1770, a work entitled, "The present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi," in which he gives an accurate description of Fort Chartres:

"Fort Chartres, when it belonged to France, was the seat of the govern- ment of the Illinois. The headquarters of the English commanding officer is now here, who, in fact, is the arbitrary governor of the country. The fort is an irregular quadrangle. The sides of the exterior polygon are four hun- dred and ninety feet. It is built of stone, and plastered over, and is only designed for defence against the Indians. The walls are two feet two inches thick, and are pierced with loopholes at regular distances, and with two port- holes for cannon in the facies, and two in the flanks of each bastion. The ditch has never been finished. The entrance to the fort is through a very handsome rustic gate. Within the walls is a banquette raised three feet, for the men to stand on when they fire through the loopholes. The buildings within the fort are, a commandant's and commissary's house, the magazine of stores, corps de garde, and two barracks. These occupy the square. Within the gorges of the bastion are a powder-magazine, a bake-house, and a prison, in the floor of which are four dungeons, and in the upper, two rooms and an out-house belonging to the commandant. The commandant's house is thirty- two yards long and ten broad, and contains a kitchen, a dining-room, a bed- chamber, one small room, five closets for servants, and a cellar. The com- missary's house is built on the same line as this, and its proportion and the distribution of its apartments are the same. Opposite these are the store- house, and the guard-house, each thirty yards long and eight broad. The former consists of two large store-rooms, (under which is a large vaulted cellar), a large room, a bed-chamber, and a closet for the store-keeper. The latter of a soldiers' and officers' guard-room, a chapel, a bed-chamber, a closet for the chaplain, and an artillery store-room. The lines of barracks have never been finished. They at present consist of two rooms each for officers, and three for soldiers. They are each twenty-five feet square, and have betwixt a small passage."

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History of Macoupin County, Illinois, Part 5

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages: 440

Author: Brink, McDonough & Co.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 440